Since its inception, Israel has maintained good relations with the Republican and Democratic parties, and in recent years, some American circles have seen that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has harmed the relations between the two countries because of his rationalization of his relations with former President Donald Trump, which facilitated pushing Democrats to adopt unprecedented positions towards Israel as well. Appeared during the recent aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu chose to approach the hard-right trend in the Republican Party, and this affected the bilateral relations between the two countries, American Jews, the future of the settlement process with the Palestinians, and the intended agreement with Iran.
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At the height of negotiations between the administration of former US President Barack Obama and Iran in the spring of 2015, Netanyahu was a guest in Washington without being invited by Obama, but rather in response to the invitation of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Representative John Boehner, to talk about his refusal to sign Washington on the nuclear agreement.
Netanyahu deviated from the generally accepted diplomatic norms, delivered a speech hostile to the negotiations, and demanded that Congress reject any agreement with Iran and pressure Obama to withdraw from the negotiations.
Netanyahu’s position and his display of the strength of Israel’s influence among members of Congress caused great resentment among the pillars of the Obama administration, including Joe Biden, then Vice President.
Six years later, Netanyahu acquiesced in a request from former President Donald Trump to prevent the entry of progressive Democratic members of the House of Representatives to Israel. Trump tweeted saying that Israel would show great weakness if it allowed the entry of Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, whom he said “hate Israel and all Jews, and nothing can be said or done to change their opinion.”
The entry ban of the two members led to great anger among the leaders of Congress, even from the Republican leaders. Biden, the then Democratic candidate for the 2020 election, expressed his refusal to deny entry to the two women representatives, tweeting, “I’ve always been a strong supporter of Israel, a vital partner who shares our democratic values. But no democracy should bar visitors from entering on the basis of the content of their ideas, even the ideas they give.” They strongly object to it. No leader of the free world should encourage them to do so.”
And during the three Israeli elections that took place in the previous US presidential term, Netanyahu tried to woo more right-wing voters who viewed Trump and his pro-Israel stances with pride. During his recent election campaigns, a lot of pictures and election campaign materials appeared that collected him with the former US president.
The Israeli elections are an American affair
The United States and Israel claim that they do not interfere in each other’s internal affairs, in addition to adopting their policies of neutrality towards the elections that are held periodically in the two countries. However, relations with America and its president are an issue that preoccupies the Israeli voter, who aspires to good relations with the largest countries supporting Israel.
Israeli prime ministers have always boasted of their good relations with the US president in an effort to win more votes from voters who care about Tel Aviv’s relations with the White House. Ehud Olmert boasted of his good relationship with George Bush, and Ehud Barak boasted of his excellent personal relations with Bill Clinton, but no Israeli official went so far as to brag about his personal relationships, not only with the American president, but also with the pillars of his administration and members of his family, as Netanyahu did with Trump.
After the inauguration of Joe Biden as a new president on January 20, a whole month passed without Biden calling Netanyahu in response to his congratulations on winning the White House. It is customary for the Israeli prime minister to receive a call within the first 48 hours of the new American president’s term.
Observers in Washington considered Biden’s delay in calling Netanyahu an expression of his dissatisfaction with the close relations between Netanyahu and Trump. Biden spoke with more than 10 other world leaders before calling Netanyahu.
The next could be worse
Writer David Roscoff expressed pessimism that Netanyahu’s departure and turning his page automatically mean an improvement in Washington’s relations with Tel Aviv, and considered that the change in Israel would not necessarily be followed by a wide change in the policies or the hard-line positions of the Israeli government. “If Trump’s departure from the Oval Office had led to the end of the Trump era, I would be more optimistic about it,” Rozkopf tweeted.
The new cabinet’s first months in office will be a respite for an American president keen to avoid public strife with Israel. New right-wing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will be preoccupied with running a politically heterogeneous coalition. It is likely to reduce any possibilities of tension with Washington, and to abandon the degree of obsession shown by Netanyahu towards Washington’s return to the Iranian nuclear agreement.
Some commentators, such as former ambassador to Egypt and Israel Daniel Kreutzer, reminded the Biden administration not to forget that Bennett is moving further to the right, is more hawkish than Netanyahu, and should not expect a long honeymoon.
Aaron David Miller, a peace negotiator in several previous US administrations, tweeted that “it is difficult to overestimate the degree to which Netanyahu’s departure will help reduce tensions between the United States and Israel, and it is difficult to underestimate the degree to which he will maintain the dynamic of relations at a time when Israel moves to the right, while the Democrats move to the left.
In an article published by POLITICO, Kreutzer considered that the person who will replace Netanyahu in the first place is a more extremist version, albeit less shrewd from a political point of view.
Bennett and Yair Lapid, who will rotate as prime minister and State Department, will work hard to normalize relations with the Biden administration and with the American Jewish community.
The two men, especially Lapid, will look to mend relations with Democrats even while maintaining the cordial relations with Republicans that Netanyahu favored.